It's all about the Wings.

So I've laid out my plan for my wing aura in ID7. It takes a hell lot of planning, and money ._.

Okay, to start with - there are 5 requirements:
- Reach World of Professional 7
- 600 online battle (1v1) wins
- 500 tag battle wins
- 100 in store rivals
- 100 tag partners.

When me and Ivan got this Level 3 open we were like OAO dafuq, this is impossible.
Fast forward 4 months and he has one already. I might as well get mine - although to be honest it doesn't look that great (it does pulse the colour of aura, which does look kinda cool in it's own way :P)

So now I am at
- World of Professional 12 (CLEAR)
- 600 online battle (1v1) wins (exactly 600)
- 301 tag battle wins
- 50 in store rivals
- 67 tag partners.

which means I only need
- 199 tag battle wins (this will take a while...)
- 50 in store rivals
-  33 tag partners.

Sounds easy, but really time consuming =w= I hope to get this done by end of next week. :3

Right now, Yukiho-chan's aura looks like this (it's the Level 3 2nd row's mission - the conqueror aura)

  

Pardon the camera but my phone sucks =w=

Anyway, signing out =w=

In which times are getting harder...

Been away for abit (and mood's not too good these days)...I'll tell what I've been through lately.

>Friday<
I went for an interview at APL, an international shipping company for a position of Documentation Coordinator at MidValley. At first it didn't seem too bad, even at the interview room. Alas, I closed the door to this job myself (yes, not the interviewer). Here's why.

The pay was not that great. Yes, I'm a fresh grad, I'm not entitled to complain at all about that...but the reason I complained was because I will have to work odd hours. No, I'm not going to be doing some 9am to 6pm work hour, I'll be working at like..shift based hours. Still 9 hours, but I'll be working till 1am (starting from 4pm). However, it's not like I wasn't informed about this BEFORE the interview - so why did I still go for it you may ask?

Simple.

On their website, it was posted that there was two options, first being the late hours (one that I was offered), second was the usual hours (which is fine by me). I hope I could ask for the usual hours, but sadly they aren't hiring anyone for those hours at that point. Now, you could say, just work lah!

I did consider the prospect of working late hours (thats why I accepted the interview in the first place). But by the interview time I've come to realise that it's simply difficult for me. First off I have no own transport (which I should; but that's for another day) - that means going home at 12 or 1 is hard. Second was the fact that I simply can't leave my grandfather alone at night. Sorry, nowadays the world ain't a safe place - especially at night - and I've come to worry about his safety because of that.

If only they had those early hours I would have gone for it....but it's not happening...

The interviewer did point out that my degree entitled me to a higher pay, but they simply couldn't pay me what I wanted since they did have a fee structure to follow (understandable)...the interviewer even said it's better for me to find somewhere else coz of that.

But as time passes by (even now as I type) - I've come to realise that it's getting very difficult to get a decent job with my kind of degree (2nd lowers). I won't regret this - what good does regret does? I just have to keep on looking. And time isn't on my side...

To carry on with my day - I spent the rest of the day in the arcade while waiting for dad for dinner - did play some games but nothing too much..and at around midnight I went for yumcha with Sato, Jimmy and Tracy at some mamak store in Happy Garden (can't remember the name...)

>Saturday<
Usually, Saturdays are @D4's team meetings/outings...this week's lack alot however. Initially, me, IN and Sato were to go to Sunway but parking was impossible (rounded the place for 1/2 an hour) so we head off to IOI instead...IOI was a boring place...and I still don't like those Wangan players...total Osaka whores last time I've been there so this time I don't even bother to accept challengers...because I'm so so so so sick of freakin' Osaka. Geez. There, I only finished by 2nd loop story mode - and my R32 is then 166 games away from S9. Meanwhile IN and Sato used my ID4 card C*-Eve (because they forgot to bring theirs)..and racked up 6 wins to bring my card consecs to 41. Jimmy and Tracy dropped by but left early. I didn't find out why though.

The thing was Sato had to go back home around 7pm (he's heading back to Japan for a week)..so after sending him back...me and IN..had nothing to do..he sent me back and later we were supposed to go out again with Jimmy for another meeting.

...which never happened by the way.

And what wonderful timing it was for Streamyx to FAIL. Lagging connections..and I've read on forums it was nationwide too. Geez TM, buck up your freakin' services...I didn't pay RM99 to surf at dial up speeds.

...Then again, maybe I did.

>Sunday<
Watched the Clannad Ep24 (the Tomoyo-Tomoya OVA)in the afternoon. Will blog more about that later.

I went to MV later in the evening....and I finished the Perfect GT-R arc on my card as well as clearing 7 out of 10 stages on the first Devil Z arc....and from today I decide to just NOT do the 200 ghosts..and finish another story loop (6 games saved)..therefore..I'm 147 games away from S9 on my R32. I also got...something else. But that..remains a secret. Eventually people will find out though. But until then, it's a secret =D.

I came back, and finished all the Generals Challenge for my CnC Zero Hour game...now to uninstall it. That's about it for now...right now, I'm pondering over some things.

That's all for the 3 days - and trust me, the way things are going...the next week is going to be a crucial one.

Getting back to business...

Okay this was what happened yesterday. Bullet points with some elaboration :

- Lunch with a special someone.
No comment :)

- Went out with my @D4 teammates (IN, Alpha, Sato) to Sunway Pyramid.
As usual, like every week. Nothing to elaborate upon :3 but this is the first time IN paid for parking (for an hour at least).

- Met up with Kenji (my fellow RV teammate and also leader) as well as -KS- since they were there too.
Before the day itself, Kenji asked me to join them but I had the lunch going on, but anyways it was fun meeting up with these guys.

- Got ★1588 R32 card like everyone else :3
Not exactly "everyone else" but I guess having connections helps. :3

- ID4 Iro DH Wet 2'45"4 RX-8...just for fun.
Just 2 games. Not pushing it. I'm supposed to be done with this game remember?

- Tuned the -R.V- R32 from Level 40 to Level 42 dressup.
Seeing Kenji was away with -KS- for dinner, I went and helped Kenji tune to the first neon. Ghost Battle Mode is boring.

- Metro Highway Tokyo with my own Lili★ R32, testing 760HP/D, with one big hit, ends at 12'12"014.
760HP/D surprisingly feels nice...but needs a lot of work in C1. I'm losing a fair bit of time there..but for a first try I guess it's pretty nice. And if it wasn't for the one hit at the S turn before the Yoko Down/C1 Out split I would have gotten 11.5..ironically the same time on the card. :)

- Dinner at Cilli Padi (met Jimmy and his girlfriend Tracy here) near Happy Gardens - had Chicken Maryland and 2 scoops of Chocolate Ice Cream.
Chicken Maryland was pretty decent..nothing really special for RM18...but the ice cream was fantastic :D

- Received a note that the the -R.V- R32 card is ready..now to fork out money...
This is R32 number.....5 i have. (6 if you count CY+JA which is with Ricky (@GT2))
- Lili★ - Current one, A3 rank, 1283 stars.
- Lili★ - Second one, given to the special someone, B2 rank but I have it for the moment, 443 stars.
- Lili★ - Third one, but first Lili★ made. Currently at 800HP/DG, Stage 44. No stars. :3
- ★1588 - Pros call this the rubbish car (I think it's just the reputation of that team...)but hey this card is so famous so I wanted one (and those connected to the pros all have one too). I don't remember how many stars this had...6000+? But these stars aren't mine anyways.
- -R.V- - Coming soon. :3 Don't remember how many stars (exactly 300?) but this one comes with a red aura - None of my cars have such an aura :3 - they are all either green or purple.

- Played Outrun 2 at MV...
Heart Attack mode owns. Although to be honest, I can only do so well at the Easy splits..the hard ones I can't do well..especially the blue cone request.

- .....and also played Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 3 at MV and had a 4 win streak going on.
- Hohoho, the first three wins I was pretty calm..the fourth one in Osaka..I think I spun out of control..my playstyle that is. I think that was the first time I got fired up on instinct...and I don't know why either!

- Finished Story mode 2nd loop for my Lili★ R32 till Stage 20.
Technically, 226 games more till S9 for my R32..provided I don't battle. Can be done by September..but I'll need a job to confirm that (No money = No WMMT)

- Tagged with Sato for Time Crisis 4
.....and found that all enemies still have double HP even when the partner is dead. :( I died at the last section of Stage 3 Area 1 because the double HP really kills my concentration...I needed to dodge more red sights I wasn't expecting (I usually play Solo because of this reason).

- Had a drink with my @D4 mates at Stevens Corner OUG right after...for about like 10 minutes.
Nothing much to say here...

- Posted my teammate's record.
- Needed to do it before I forget the 4 digit key because I don't have it noted anywhere.

That's all. :)

Mission complete. Now I can finally officially quit ID4 TA with a happy end...

Irohazaka DH Dry 2'43"655 RX-8 Type S (SE3P) - my CP times.

Okay fine, so I didn't really hold true to my vow and quit ID4 TA - but now, I can finally do so. When I did that post down below, I was abit unsatisfied, since I didn't really get to achieve what I wanted - or at least something I can be happy about. Nevertheless, I was pretty sure I wasn't going to be serious about ID4 ever again.

Well...at least till today.

I had some major form going on when toying around (just for fun since the MT3 machines were full) with my MR2 (1-1-1-1-0 tuned)...did 2'46"955 Iro DHD with it so I thought hey, why not give it a try again. So I tried my fully tuned RX-8 then. For 8 games I tried I kept getting good CPs with it. While the above time was abit of a disappointment (CP3 was +0.4 off my last personal best of 2'44"1xx) nevertheless it is still a 2'43.

Could I have pushed it? Yes, probably....but no more. I do notice that if I had not messed up the third section (due to the fact I lost 10km/h coming out of the final jump) I would have gotten a 2'43"2xx which would have really been nice, but I don't think I want to push this anymore...seriously, no more....

As far as my ID4 TA times are concerned, this is it...its the end..300+ days since I first touched the machine in Sunway Pyramid. I will never declare that I will stop ID4 for good (like, 100%) because inevitably I will play battles or have some fun games no matter how I try to resist. But as far as seriously time attacking is concerned, "Time Is Up". I neither have the passion, nor the resources to commit myself to this, more towards the former...

What next for me? First priority now is to get a job. Yes, I know it's been overdue for so many months now....but I will be the first to admit its partly due to my laziness. Now though, I should get serious regarding this, because despite being in such a mental state that I'm lazy yet I definitely need a job reality hits hard - I need money, and I need it if I'm going to survive.

Signing out for now, bad Streamyx connection doesn't allow me to surf the net much.. being limited to local sites and MSN sucks.

Current music: Nobuo Uematsu - Submarine Nautillus (Final Fantasy 3 DS OST)

It's official in my book. I quit Initial D 4.

Yes, you read it right. *cue WTF WTF WTF*

I quit Initial D Arcade Stage 4 as of 22nd June 2008. The game has became too frustrating to play for me and this in turn makes it money consuming. As I'm already playing Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 3 (far more enjoyable than ID4 ever will), I will devote any arcading funds to that game from now on.

Seriously though, ID4 had its chance to redeem itself through v1.5 and the new physics completely killed the game for me. Why penalize players with an idiotic oversteer? Yes, maybe the better players will come here and say "You just don't know how to do the turn right". Well I say, forget it. The physics suck. That's my opinion, you can keep yours to yourselves. Furthermore, I have no other incentive to play when Wangan is so much more fun.

I will still be with @D4 (my Initial D 4 team) as they are still my friends and I will still go out with them on team meets. But I won't play ID4 seriously anymore...because I am frustrated. Very frustrated.

Will I ever make a u-turn to my decision? Highly unlikely, unless a miracle happens (or a new physics ver comes out which is highly unlikely now...). Will I play an Initial D 5 if it exists? Sure, why not? Just don't make them physics damn retarded as this one.

In the meantime... goodbye mountain roads (sans Hakone) and hello to the Metropolitan highways.

My ID4 TA video :D

Course: Irohazaka Downhill Night Clear
Time: 2'45"051 <-- OMG!! T_T
Car: Honda S2000 (AP1)
Driver: me (D4@Cypher)
Cameraman: D4@Satoshi (yes I know the vid says Alpha but that's the mistake of the editor >_>)
Editor: D4@Larmo
Song: glacial - BeForU

Yes, I know I could have filmed a better run. But hey, when you're working with limited funds I don't have many rounds to toy with.

Anyways, enjoy.

Note: Yes, the video is not on my Youtube channel, but it's on the team's Youtube channel :)

Thoughts of the Week #1: Initial D Arcade Stage 4 : A game that fails to live up to its predecessors.

It figures that I can't leave this blog dead for too long. So I'll be active again :)

So, lets see now. It's Initial D. It has wide screen. It has better graphics and sound. Surely the game would be as successful as its predecessors.

Apparently, not.

Take a look at ANY arcade with Initial D 4 and you will find it mostly dead. In contrast, Namco's arcade racer Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 3 (hereby referred to as WMMT3 from now on) has taken over the arcade as THE racer to play.

What has certainly gone wrong. Well, I managed to find reasons for it.

1) Lack of courses.
When Initial D 1 came out almost 4 - 5 years ago, arcade racers were given four course to choose from. When the sequel came out, it became even better, with two new courses, totalling six. And when the third installment came out, it became even better, with three courses added. Now certainly, you'd expect the fourth one to have more than that?

Not quite the case.

Sure, the fourth installment introduced 3 new courses (Lake Akina, Myogi (now a mountain based course and not the circuit one in the three previous versions) and Tsukuba), but as a trade off they removed Usui, Akina Snow, Shomaru, Tsuchisaka. Thats FOUR removed. Sure, the game engine changed (ID4 uses the Sega Lindbergh board unlike the other three), but surely Sega could have readded them? Unless they are L-A-Z-Y.

And it doesn't end there too.

2) Certain car models removed.
Yes, I know they have added the Evo IX and GDBF.

But did Sega have to remove more cars than they add?

The original lineup in the Japanese release was seriously lacking cars it wasn't funny. In V3 there were at least 30+ cars in the game. And when V4 came, at least 8-10 were missing. That included the "king" car of V3, the RX-8. Sure, they fixed things up for the English version when they re added three cars back (Miata, Altezza, RX-8), but come on, is this an upgraded version or a downgrade.

3) No transferral of cards from previous version.
This one takes the cake as the main reason why people just simply did not want to play V4. Previously you could have transferred your cars to the next version at the expense of the cost of the new card. Which is cool. You keep your points.

Then when V4 came out, you couldn't transfer the card - mostly probably because the tuning system has changed. Lots of people didn't like it coz they had to start over.

4) Tuning system was tedious.
One FT car will set you back RM450. Why?

The tuning shops that improve the car performance comes every six ejects. No, not games. Everytime you pull out the card counts as an eject. That's tedious.

Then there's thirty five performance parts to install 35 x 6 = 210.

Yup, you pull the card 210 times. Whoopeedoo.

And the card only holds 150 plays...so you have to renew the card at least once. Which brings me to my next point.

5) Error 403 says hi.
If you read my blog before, I've got this before.

You insert your card.

You pay the amount required for a new card.

Your invalid gets spit out.

.....

Nice red sign comes out saying license couldn't be dispensed. Call the technician!

Sucks doesn't it? Now most arcades know how to fix this error, but seriously, if it happens often enough, it's a problem. Considering point number 4, this is serious.

6) Lack of battle auras.
Yes, I know the Japanese have them.

But we don't.

See, the reason people battle nowadays is because they want to get to see some cool ass flame that rises up before the start of the race perhaps as super intimidation or coolness factor. I wonder why Sega did not fix the battle auras to be included. This reason alone is the reason why all the battlers stuck to the last version.

7) Weird physics that makes it difficult to play.
From those videos you see on Youtube it looks like you could try full gassing all the way and it works, right? Well yes, you can. But then halfway thru the turn you get this funky understeer. And even if you do avoid hitting the wall, you still get a funky accel penalty. WTF?

That's where penalty cancel comes in play. Perhaps the most retarded physics exploit ever. With a simple tap of the brake coming out of the turn/understeer, the accel gets restored.

Except it's not easy to execute in theory. If you don't do it right, it won't work.

So what does that mean?

a) If you don't know what is this, you're screwed in PvP battles.

b) If you don't know how to execute this properly, you're...still screwed in PvP battles.

The gap between those that know how to play and those who don't are so wide new players are deterred from playing. This also effectively makes this game have an unusual high learning curve. Sadly, the physics might look easy to play, but in theory it's not.

Conclusion
So much failure reasons that deter this game from being the game to play. I play it because I can adapt to it, but not everyone can. It's not really crowd attracting. Just shows that graphics don't drag the crowd. Just look at Wangan if you don't believe me.

Thanks for reading Thoughts of The Week #1 XD

Mission accomplished. (and..."OMG! Similar features!")

2'59"808 Akina Downhill Dry with the AE86 Trueno.

My IR entry. Ranked 31st in the world as of 28th Dec 2007, 0214 hrs.

Finally dipped below the 3'00 mark. Don't know if I could go any faster, but that is for another day.

And this is my latest avatar for the last card I made:
....hey wait a second she looks like...

And no I didn't do it on purpose, I only realised it when I got home, LOL!

O_O OMG. Hair and Shirt/Vest colours seperate them!

That's all for today :p

My ID4 cars

Feel like introducing my cars :D In order of acquiring them:

My FD. First car ever :D All my noob games in this :p

My RX-8. One of the better cars that I liked. :D (I have since changed the GT wing to the same one with the RX-8 below :P)

My first S2000. I rarely used this one....because of....

THIS awesome lil' baby that turns fast and accels fast! Makes my other three cars before this feel..uhh...crap. :(. One of my main cars.

Now this one I bought for Iro. Turns fast, is small. Too bad the accel sucks :(

This one was on request from a special someone. I actually like this better than my Black S2000. One of my more used cars besides the 86.
There seems to be a mysterious aura behind this RX-8 (this also is meant for the special someone). I seem to be doing better in this RX-8 than my own. -_- . I'm using this as my primary car at this time.

Oh by the way, I hardly ever use the first three on this post. My team mates use it more often than I do. -__-;;;; ah well, since I have one of only two FDs in the team....I guess it can't be helped. :P

Will I add more cars? Maybe if my interest in this game doesn't die. Somehow Wangan 3 seems more fun than this....

The escape from Error 403. And a blast into the past.

It would have been a bad day entry, but it ended well so I actually feel quite upbeat. Hm.

Anyway, on Friday I went to Mines to renew my YUMI* AE86 card. Now, when I bought the card (also at Mines), I already encountered Error 403 (rotten luck, but I was only buying the card, so no loss there :D). But this time around, the stakes are so much higher -_-

So I popped in the tokens for renewal, got my expired card out. And then I waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Then..

Error 403 =___________=;;;; with all the "unable to dispense the license card" explanation bla bla bla.

Uh oh, sounds bad right? The prospect of losing my data was staring right in my face.

Luckily for me, there was a technician who knew how to fix it. (I know how to as well in case he didn't, but it was very convenient that he knew everything from the start). And he helped to recover my data. Granted the other technician present ALMOST screwed up the process (T_T), but in the end it all was good :D and the renewal was good :D Recovery was a success. :D

The end result?



And before I forget, here's Yumi* in full colour. Taken with my Nokia 6300:

As for who is Yumi, let's just say she taught me some IDV2 basics back LONG ago. (Yes, GIRL tutoring ME a GUY -_-) My first mentor you could say :). Unfortunately she isn't, well...with us now if you know what I mean, so as a tribute. The avatar is based off what description I could get of her from some of my fellow ID friends.

Anyway, all's well that ends well. Good night.

Of apple pies, boost off battles, peer pressure and nostalgia.

Okay okay fine, so I didn't update for so long >_< >_< so sorryyyyyy :(

Today was a pretty fine day in my book. One that lifted up my spirits.

I got myself to Sg Wang for two reasons today.
a) My team mate and good friend Loong's girlfriend is present to take the card that I've been tuning for him (-_- and ironically I confirmed its bad luck status, once it got off my hand I feel 99.6% more relieved)
b) Samuel (a good ol' friend from the IDV3 Kotaraya days) called me out to play ID4. (despite me at the bottom off the barrel in money terms :( )

So I got out to Sg Wang from Tun Sambanthan Monorail (its 50 cents cheaper damn it, and I didnt want to walk from TS -_-) and when I searched out Samuel, he hasn't change a single bit. Still super tall as he used to be, I don't think I noticed anything different as I spotted him right away. He however, like 75% of the people I know said "how different I look from before" =_= omg really now, am I THAT different from before?

Immediately, we got down to business. Since there was this S2000 accepting challengers, I decided to bring out my 86, and dragged him to Akina Downhill. Since he asked for boost off, I obliged. Immediately, like ants there was a crowd behind me. Like what? o_o And in the end I managed to pass him at the Death Corner (I like the name, woohoo) and ran away 300+m. Now usually, this will scare off the challenger right?

Nope.

He came back for Tsukuba as expected. Boost off again despite me knowing how dangerous it is, but I looked at his TA times and suspected something. Which was confirmed the moment we hit the first turn in CP3. Coz with a crap speed I was actually catching up and passed him by the start of CP4 -_-;;; and ran away by 100+m.

With my free game I pulled off a 2'50"9 Tsukuba OB with my then 7-2-1-1-2 AE86T. -_- It was such a nice run but I hated the highway CP that was CP2. -_- Now, during the free game, I received some calls on my phone, I didn't think of much.

Until I saw who called that is. -_- Now I had to wait till 4.30 to pass back the card. Bad feeling UP!

Anyway, I got Samuel to make his ID card. Luckily enough there was no 403 (Sg Wang is notorious for such an error -_-) and I got him to buy his Trueno. Well....actually initially he wanted to buy the Evo 4 or the GC8v...but I showed him the awesomeness that is the Trueno (yay free game for my card again XD) and he bought it. He immediately showed interest in Iro, which I showed him how (well...at least for 3 CPs -_- I kinda reversed on the fourth jump, and it was damn nice too =.=).

Then, he started playing Iro, first game being something like a 3'06, but I managed to help him a little with wall ramming and stuff, and when I taught him the all important penalty cancel tech, he actually did it very well. Better than me even O_o. I see his accel brought back to life everytime he uses it. He then brought his time down to 2'59"0 within a few games. Then he himself got into a battle, which he won. First win for him. Congrats :D

What happened next was pure awesomeness.

Sam: Eh, so pressing the view change + start button, what will happen ah?
Me: Force Quit...you've played V3, you should know.
Sam: Like this?
"TIME IS UP"
Sam: Oops.
Me: WTF YOU WASTED YOUR FREE GAME
(guy next to him was hoping to rechallenge but he can't :p)
Sam: Err...(takes card) I didn't know ma
(I walk away with him)
Me: Let's admit it, you did it on purpose so that the other guy didn't get the chance to challenge back.
Sam: Yeah la of course :p

LOL.

Then we head off to McDs downstairs, where Samuel treated me to a Med.Coke, and an Apple Pie. Thank you! ^o^

Although I wonder why you want me to eat the apple pie that badly O_o

Me: (chats about other things)
Sam: Yeah, cool. Eh, eat the apple pie la.
Me: -_- Later la.
(30 seconds later)
Sam: (chats and suddenly...) Eh, eat the apple pie la!
Me: -_- Yes la eating la.

So we chat a lot actually, among things the old Kotaraya gang and where the others went to (that's Yian, Barry, Alv, David (Croix), Nic, Jason (the OTHER one), himself (Sam), Ash, Roy, Ceres and the other specky dude that the name escapes me). Somehow, talking to him brings back thought of the good old days where i used to be super free for ID right after class, or before it. Before it all came crashing down thanks to the main V3 arcade closing. Sad.

Then we went back up to the arcade to see him play some more Akina and Iro. -_- I wished he'd listen to what I say.

Me: So this corner, use In-In-Out lining yes?
Sam: Ok.
(sees Sam use Out-In-Out)
Me: =_+ errrrrr......
Sam: Sorry got used to it -_-
Me: =_= right....

Then, Loong's gf called and I made my move to Royale Bintang and passed the card to her. Suddenly my mood returned after a few days of absence :D

Next, we headed off to TS, where I picked up some more battles. Awesome. I didn't see anyone I know except Kim (who disappeared right after saying hello =_=) and that "X-FAST" kid. =_=. Poor Sam lost 2 battles in V3. :( Disappointing day for him. I got something like an 06 for Akina Downhill with 7-2-2-1-2 but I was so disappointed that I didn't do better. Then we went off to dinner at the TS food court upstairs where I had my Fried Rice and Sam having er...Salty Fried Kuey Teow =_=;;; which he returned and got the...not so salty one which he theorized that they put his Kuey Teow through water and then served it out again.

After that we head off back to the arcade where Sam finally realized he's overspent for the day (not really broke but he didnt expect to spend so much XD). But somehow my bored self managed to coax him BACK to Sg Wang where I got 2 battles (won the first, lost the second, damn my Akagi sucks, and first loss for my 86) and Sam got his 57 Iro. I then tried Iro with my own 86, and got a crappy 2'48"9 with 7-2-2-2-2. Lost 10km/h for some of the turns. Felt like screaming but never did -_-

Then I managed to pull this off:
Sam: Eh dude, that 2'48 is quite fast ah...
Me: You can do it too. Wanna try my car? :D :D :D
Sam: Eh cannot la I overspent already!!!
Me: My Yumi* Trueno is calling out for youuuuuuuuuuuuuu.........
Sam: .... (goes to the counter)
Me: XD (whee free game for my car :D)

And he ran like...a 55"9 or something. Trying to tempt him again didn't work -_- :p.

We walked all the way down from Sg Wang to Kotaraya. Was fun to chat with him continuously haha. Then we got to Kotaraya to have a look see around the former hangout for us. Somehow, it doesn't feel the same. It's now 1.5x times more smoky (there's even smoke coming out of some of the aircon vents =_=). More importantly. where did the last pair of V3 machines go? All they have now are crappy as hell V2 machines, and a bunch of Cyber Cafes (as if that building needs more than 2...). And the former "main hangout"...well..it's empty now. Deserted. Crap man, thinking about all this makes me and him almost cry.

Then we split from there. A nice and interesting day to cap off what was a high and low week. I didn't expect so much from this, but in the end there were many things that were memorable.

Thank you for reading, and good night :)

(And while I wish I capped this off with pictures, I didn't take any. Sorry >_<)

The evolution of Kaze. Wahahahaha.

Something basic....

Change the shirt a lil....

And the eyes and hair colour...

Add a jacket....

But then I decided to do a complete makeover with the hair, clothes and the lips. XD

Sunway Pyramid Arcade pics (20/7/2007)

Since I've taken them, might as well post them here. No flash. Yes, some of the pics would look way better. But I was being paranoid of looking like a suspicious character. (or worse, getting on the bad side of the arcade operator!)

Behold! It's Mario Kart Arcade GP! :p

And there are four of em :D

OMG. It's Initial D 4 XD. SABRE is the dude who gave some tips to help me beat LotS for the first time :D

My good friend Zackler taking on Kozo Hoshino. Doryaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!

In-game....

This is Initial D 3 Japanese Ver. heaven. English version? Tadak. :p
(Oh btw, mistake on my part, there was only 10 machines....)

Save the world...deluxe style XD

Character Customization rocks!

This is Kaze, my Initial D 4 character: Last Tuesday (left), and last Friday (right). Yes, the pics dont have the same size because they both are seperate pics, and I was never any good in camera pics :D

I'm pretty happy with the look Kaze has now. Unless something good comes up through the roulette.

The Gaming Outing (or Initial D 4 ROX)

Having heard that Initial D 4 is out in Sunway, me and two of my friends checked it out at Sunway Pyramid. We went at around 12. That time there was no one playing Initial D 4 so there's me and my chance to play. So I created a card (RM18...OMFG). It is understandable considering it has 150 card plays, able to store 3 cars, and is solid. Meaning you can't destroy it unless you intentionally do so.

The card is better than Initial D 3's that's for sure. :D.

After buying the car, you pick your gender portrait (they are randomly generated, one male and one female), your name (up to 6 letters), your car and the colour of the car.

Here's the details of my card XD

Name: Kaze
Gender: Female (Note: shut up. And the female portrait generated for me looked far better)
Car: Mazda Efini RX-7 Type R (FD3S) (I have no intention to fill up the two empty slots as of posting)
Colour: Black

Then the game starts. There are only six tracks (Lake Akina, Myogi, Akagi, Akina, Irohazaka, Tsukuba). The story is animated and the voice acting is Japanese with English subs (this is the English version). And during gameplay you can actually hear them talk ala ID Special Stage for PS2. (can be turned off, I did because I found it annoying).

And the screen is widescreen. High definition drifting FTW.

The physics are changed completely. It almost mimics Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune, but on mountain courses. In fact, any ID3 skills don't work anymore. Back to square one I suppose. The difficulty is also ramped up. (I took several rounds to beat Takumi on Akina. Grrrrr.....).

In store battle mode works almost like the old ones, but I can't figure out how to turn the accept challengers on/off without going through the main menu.

At the end of the whole ID time, I managed to finish the Legend of the Streets mode once. The game is great but will take forever to adjust to.

Oh and being a new game, it attracts attention. Whoo! Especially in a battle. I racked up 2 wins XD. Blind attack = WIN :P

And while I was looking around, I saw Mario Kart Arcade GP! Not a bad game, and it was great to be able to play it again. I picked up a card as well.

The card is like Initial D 3's. But I picked it up anyway.

Details:

Name: tsukasa (hiragana spelling)
Driver (Kart) : Yoshi
Rank: Super Rookie :p

It's Mario Kart. In full arcade goodness. What else can I say :p But there is no one playing there so it wasn't so fun (they had 4 machines).

Other notable things:
- Seats near the Para Para Paradise machines. For who? Good question.
- 12 Initial D 3 machines. TWELVE! All of them Japanese. And yet hardly anyone plays them!
- Time Crisis 4 Deluxe cabinets. Whee! You don't see this everywhere. :D

The day was fun overall. :P Will definitely go back there soon :D

Thanks for reading.

Limit.

When you are playing something competitively, be it an FPS game like Counterstrike or a racing game like Initial D or even a music game like Guitar Hero, you will always have a limit of your own when you play.

Training or learning on your own does help you improve your game, but eventually when you are at the top of your game, there will be a barrier. This barrier is different for everyone (can come late or early) but this barrier is usually a barrier that is tough to knock down because there is (usually) no more room for improvement. At least for the person.

Maybe for example, you reached a pinnacle by scoring a fast time in Mario Kart, but as hard as you try you never seem to be able to beat that guy who was way faster. Eventually you might beat it, or you might not. It can turn into a psychological mess if you stress yourself over it.

Here's my example, with Initial D v3:

This is...or rather, was my best track/weather condition to play in Initial D v3. And I might be second now, but I'm happy to know that I at least managed to snag the top spot for a short while.

When I first started playing this map, I got an early 2'49"737 (see rank 10), and thats with plenty of mistakes. Even then, I continued to improve and I got what I wanted, a 2'49"190 (rank 5), but it took me roughly 5-6 months for this (as well as buckets of money retrying). I thought I was on top of my game....

Until I got beaten.

At that time when I posted the 49"190 up, I was 1st. It didn't take very long for it to get knocked down to 2nd. And then there's the urge to take back the record. And so began the battle against the barrier.

A huge barrier. I actually thought of giving up because there was hardly room for improvement. The feeling went on until during the last game, I saw a big improvement. And the fight went on until I broke the barrier. And scored a 48"787. :D

Which was #1 for 9 months until it got shot down. By that point I've already stopped so I didn't bother to continue. I might be able to beat it...or...naaaah...

More or less I was inspired to break the barrier because of the feeling of rivalry. (The dude that is #1 btw, is a Sarawakian, from Miri IIRC).

Looking back at Initial D, there were plenty of runs which were not at limit yet, but with Version 4 already out in Malaysia, and the fact that I have better priorities with my money now, makes me decide not to pursue such targets anymore.

And recently, just yesterday, I finally reached the limit for now....for Ouendan 2.

There was no other game has managed to push me to display my best before this. Not Ouendan, not EBA, not Mario Kart DS, not Tetris DS, not Counterstrike, and not even Initial D. It was Ouendan 2 which managed to bring the best out of me. Why? I don't know. And to think I spent MORE time each on all of the other games!

Initial Target: 187000000
Current: 188120370

It was an unexpected one. My calculations told me I would be hard-pressed to reach even 185 million. When I got to 187 million, I thought there was NO way I would be beating this.

And 6 hours later, I managed to push that to 188 million. But futile attempts to increase that suggest that I probably have hit the limit for now. Not the absolute max, but it did take a lot of work. (And I managed to get Zenryoku Shonen on Insane all 300'd too :p). Whether I might be able to push this to 189 million....well...that's hard to say.

So for now, thats my limit for both games....in Initial D, I will never go back to test the limit anymore seeing that the newest version has arrived, and as far as Ouendan 2 is concerned...it's not the absolute best score, but I'll have to work hard to increase this further. But I must stress that although it is difficult to break the barrier once you reach it, learning is a wonderful process, and it helps to break the barrier. There are many more limits in life that I have experienced, but it will take me a very long while to blog it all out.

What are your limits? Be it in gaming, or in life, strive on, and you will be able to set new limits for yourself.

Thank you for reading.